In the peer-reviewed medical journal Nature Medicine, a study published by researchers at Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne discusses how breast cancer can "turn off" the immune response from the body, which allows the cancer to spread to the patient's bones.
Belinda Parker, who led the study, hopes that by identifying and understanding how the cancer allows itself to spread will determine how future patients can avoid the cancer spreading to their bones.
The researchers have experimented with two ways to "turn on" the immune response to help fight breast cancer. However, it will take years before the practice can become routine.
Parker and her researchers have discovered that in mice, when breast cancer spread into the blood, the IRF7 gene is "switched off," which is the gene that releases interferon. Interferon is an immune protein which would normally detect and fight the cancerous cells which would spread.
Determining, and experimenting with, two ways to get the interferon detecting the cancerous cells is the work that Parker and her team are currently doing. They plan on having a clinical trial in two or three years.
For the full article, visit http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48287917/ns/health-cancer/.
Belinda Parker, who led the study, hopes that by identifying and understanding how the cancer allows itself to spread will determine how future patients can avoid the cancer spreading to their bones.
The researchers have experimented with two ways to "turn on" the immune response to help fight breast cancer. However, it will take years before the practice can become routine.
Parker and her researchers have discovered that in mice, when breast cancer spread into the blood, the IRF7 gene is "switched off," which is the gene that releases interferon. Interferon is an immune protein which would normally detect and fight the cancerous cells which would spread.
Determining, and experimenting with, two ways to get the interferon detecting the cancerous cells is the work that Parker and her team are currently doing. They plan on having a clinical trial in two or three years.
For the full article, visit http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48287917/ns/health-cancer/.
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